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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Forgotten Cigarette Brands

Well, let me rephrase that. Cigarettes have always been gross and
deadly. But these days, a cigarette smoker is pretty much considered as
low as a crackhead in some circles. Though it's nice the smoking
awareness campaigns have brought the graphic evils of tobacco to dinner hour TV
screens, I have to admit, they're as pointless as the anti-marijuana PSAs of the '60s to the
'90s.

Besides, NOTHING can convince an innocent kid not to take up smoking more
effectively than a kiss from a chain smoking aunt.

In the old days, you used to have a dizzying variety of cigarette
choices available at your local grocery/convenience store (more than
50!). Today, there's about 10 or even fewer brands in most places. Today, most brands are available exclusively over the internet. Retail stores get their stock from a state regulated middleman. Which is why in many states (namely Washington State), there is so little variety.

But for remaining smokers, fire up a menthol and enjoy this stroll down the tobacco aisle of yesteryear....

Tareyton - My dad used to smoke these. No longer available in many
areas, but they are available on the internet through RJ Reynolds.

Kent - My mom used to smoke these.

Virginia Slims - Another disappearing brand of women's cigarette.

More - An icky tasting super long and thin "120" cigarette. I snagged a pack of these from the rack at Fred Meyer when I was a kid. They looked weird, so I though they'd taste cool (with that funky brown paper.) They were flat out GROSS.

Satin - "With a LUXURIOUS satin tip", never mind the tobacco inside was garbage. Satin was an '80s upstart brand. I knew of these by the free pack coupons they used to stuff in every Sunday newspaper.

Yves St. Laurant - A fashion designer's death by design. Another '80s brand.

Merit - Another former brand of choice. Of all the low-tars, I actually LIKED Merits. They were tolerable. But Merit was one of those "old peoples" brands that seemed to disappear rapidly.

Doral - A '70s brand.

Multifilter - Known for having two different filters, but the same result.

Vantage - A filter cigarette with a giant hole in the middle of the filter.

Sterling - An 80's brand

Benson & Hedges - Another disappearing brand and the first marketed for the "upscale" crowd.

Chesterfield - A non-filtered smoke, popular from the '20s - the '60s
when even by then, it was an "old people's cigarette" Before Kool and
their jazz festivals in the '70s and '80s, it was popular with radio DJs (and immortalized as such in Donald Fagan's song "The Nightfly".) I never thought they were that spectacular

Raleigh - This was the brand your old neighbour probably smoked.

Dave's - A '90s brand still being made, Known for it's folksy
magazine ads that made you think it was made by some average person, just
like you, who wanted a better smoke than what those big corporations
offered. Fact: It was made by Phillip-Morris the whole time.

Scotch Buy - Now here was an unusual brand made by RJ Reynolds for a
corporate supermarket chain (Safeway and subsidiaries.) Safeway
discontinued Scotch Buy and distanced itself as far as possible from the
brand in the '90s when cigarette manufacturers were being sued. Smart
move. They tasted like crap anyway.

Bel/Air - One of the better menthols. Now vanished.

Carlton - The lowest tar and nicotine of any cigarette (without the
nicotine, there's no point in smoking cigarettes.) Memorable for
it's plain magazine ads that read. "If you smoke, please try Carlton" The gist
was that it was a "safer" cigarette. But they tasted HORRIBLE and the
filters were so tight, you can barely draw off of one.

True - Another weird filtered low-tar cigarette.

Misty - Another '80s women's cigarette. Still being made, but instead of women, it's gay men that buy them now.

Lark - I remembered seeing these on the shelves, but I can't remember anyone who ever smoked this brand.

81 comments:

Seeing comments are closed I'll use the reply section to correct the author. Lucky Strike was not big in the 60's it was the biggest in the 30's through the 60's. It was originally in a green pack, but when the war started its slogan was "Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War," and was printed in Red from then on.

Lorillard Tobacco Co. did me a favor when they "discontinued "SATIN" non menthol. They were the best. Came out in 1983-2007. I also liked "TRUE" and "PARLIAMENT" (which are still made,but hard to find. I opted to just quit..because of the prices. Who can afford them?? And now, with all the additives (many)!!!!

A weird one is Pall Mall Red unfiltered. As of 2014, they could still be purchased at some Walgreen's drug stores in Texas. The shocker is they are considered a specialty item and cost almost $90 a carton - double the price of Pall Mall filtered cigerettes!

I remember all the brands..."Satin" was okay,and "True"..they were mild..but as prices went up,and I started coughing, I quit too,as one other here had said. hen I started i the 1960's..they were 30 cents a pack. Now,all of them are well over $7.00...almost $8.00 where I live now. How ridiculous!! But,Smoking is certainly not cool any more. You are looked at like a "complete fool".

In my corner of the world (Saskatchewan), a pack of cigarettes will free your wallet of $15 (sometimes more, depending on the brand). I agree with "Anonymous" about smokers now being looked at as "complete fools", while I cannot ignore that if society were to shed some of its hypocrisy and put as much collective effort, money and actions to wipe out poverty, no one in this world would ever go to sleep on an empty stomach.

Here in Turkey, major brands go for $2.50 to 3.50 per pack. But you can buy 20 no-names made from local tobacco for just over $1, and many people prefer these. It's uncertain times here, so many people are torching up.

There was a documentary on cigarette ads on television & their eventual ban effective January 2,1971.I think the Tareyton commercial could be tweaked & make a great ad for a Mexican Restaurant.Show a customer go into the restaurant(call it Pablo's),have a good meal,then leave it,look into the camera & say,"Us Pablo's diners would rather FART than switch"then cut a loud one.

I don't smoke any more, but I started as a teenager in the 1970s and smoked through the 1980s before quitting in the '90s. I absolutely loved smoking! If it wasn't so bad for you I would still do it. Anyway, I smoked or at least tried many of these brands. I smoked Tareyton 100s as my regular brand for a while in the late '70s/early '80s. I liked them - strong, but smooth and easy to inhale. I tried Lark 100s a few times but they were sort of blah. Merit 100s were vile-tasting, like they were artificially flavored. Mores were just strange, both in look and in taste, never liked them. I had a girlfriend in the '80s who smoked Virginia Slims and Satin (for a while) - she loved the Satins but said she found them hard to find, so she became a devoted VS girl. People say now that smoking isn't sexy, but I contend they never saw her smoking - she looked absolutely great doing it. I eventually smoked B&H Menthols for years and that was my last brand before quitting. They were really good.

Same here, I loved smoking and were it not for the fact that it's so unhealthy, I would still be doing it. I'll never forget all the excitement of smoking a cigarette between classes in college, and how everyone on campus seemed to light up with enthusiasm. What a time we had!

I was at a skate park with some friends and the older kids were smoking (me only being 13 at the time) wanted to fit in and be a cool kid so when the guys were coming around asking if anybody wanted smokes from the gas station i was like yeah! Marlboros and the kid was like one kind.. i hesitated not knowing the difference and just blurted out reds. After that i smoked for 4 more years and just quit because of how bad they are for you. I think its pretty funny hearing how some people started smoking.

I see my old favorites here - Multifilters til they became hard to find; my last brand - Merits (still have 9 1/2 pks from the last carton I bought in 2002!). But for a brief time in the early 60s I smoked (and liked) a (probably obscure) menthol brand that came in a dark blue soft pack. Can't think of the name and can't find on the net. Anyone?

Well, this was a nice trip down Memory Lane. Some of these brands I never heard of, but I remember most of them and smoked some of them. Back in the day when I used to be a smoker I would smoke Carlton cigarettes when I had a cold. I still needed my "nic fix," but couldn't handle my usual brand and Carlton cigs were mild enough to handle. I also liked Merit and Vantage cigs from time to time when I wanted something different. At times I would smoke Dorals because they were cheaper than my usual brand and I just wanted to save a little money. At first they weren't that bad, but after a pack or two their taste just seemed to get worse and I would have to go back to my usual brand.

Wow I was trying to remember cigarette brands when I was a kid and my mom or the neighbours used to ask me to run errands to our local convenience stores with note in had. I am Canadian so Does anyone remember Black Cat cigarettes? How about Players, Peter Jackson, Export A still selling these. Matinee cigarettes, I think they still sell these. I remember tobacco in can and then you buy the filter and paper in a box and a machine that you load the tobacco, slide and you had a cigarette. Helped my mom make cigarettes. Just rememberring for some reason.

I'm not Canadian, but I've spent a few summers in Canada and I definitely remember Black Cat, Players, and Export A cigarettes. When I ran out of the Camels I brought with me I would smoke Players or Export A cigarettes and I found the Export A brand to be closest to what I smoked. It's been a while since I've been up there, but man I need to come back for a visit soon. I really want to fish for some pike and musky, eat some poutine, and make a trip to good ole Tim Horton's!

I remember Black Cat making a brief comeback in the 1990s before disappearing again. Player's must still be around as it was one of the most popular brands in the late 20th century. Peter Jackson was busted down to a budget brand in the early 2000s. Not sure if those are still available. (I tried the lights and found them disgusting.) Export "A" is still available but I think they're losing market share to budget brands and brands from larger companies.

I don't smoke anymore, but I still remember Matinee Special Filter (in the pack that looked a bit like Number 7) quite fondly. Those were phased out in the 1990s and their replacement wasn't nearly as good, in my opinion.

Whatever they're smoking now smells like doggie poo, straw and used condoms all rolled into one. They are just plain nasty smelling. I quit smoking in 1964 when cigarettes cost .27 a pack. Put .30 in a machine and get a pack with .03 taped on the side plus a pack of matches.

My Dad and Stepmother used to smoke Vantage in the late 70's. The filters had a big hole right in the middle of them. Gawd they were nasty-tasting! But I started smoking in 1978 (at age 14) and suffered through many a (stolen) pack of their disgusting Vantages whenever I ran out of my trusty Marlboro 100's.

My mom smoked Larks in the 70s. I remember those crushed red soft packages on every surface of our house. Crazy to think how lighters & matches were left out everywhere you went (within easy reach of any kid with a pyro itch to scratch!). In the 80s, she switched over to Benson & Hedges.

I have a wooden cigarette pack with a tongue and groove top on it that was a sampler pack. It has the brands, Mercury, Spear, Cabert and Minuet brand name printed on both sides. Can anyone tell me about this pack or the brands? I;m trying to sell the pack but don't know the value

I think you might be thinking of Camel. On the back of their packs they used to attach "Camel Cash" and if you accumulated enough of it you could purchase Camel merchandise including things like an ash tray, clothes, or lighters and all of it would have the Camel logo on it. Marlboro did something similar where you could save the side of the pack marked with "Marlboro Miles" and that pretty much worked the same was as Camel Cash where you could purchase various items of Marlboro merchandise. I don't know if Raleigh did that. They might have, but I know for sure Camel and Marlboro did this.

There was also Belair that had coupons on the pack and a strip of coupons in each carton. Ordered many of the premiums that were offered by Brown & Williamson. Belair was discontinued ( 2001-2002 ) shortly after RJ Reynolds purchased Brown & WIlliamson. RJ Reynolds supports their Salem brand. Belair was a much better smoke.

Smoked Belairs for around 20 years, until RJ discontinued them as you said, (which was prior to 2002 however). I then switched to Pall Mall menthols, (also owned by RJ Reynolds by then), as they tasted identical to the Belairs, before quitting for good in 2003. Belairs were indeed superior to Salems & if you still smoke & loved them, I recommend the Pall Mall menthols.

I knew 3 people who smoked BelAir and died from heart disease,and lung cancer..it was awful. (Found out that B&W were adding tons of additives to them) I now have an anyurism of the heart from smoking "Kent" and "Parliament" even tho I quit 19 years ago. I wished I'd have never smoked. Kids today..knowing about the perils of these damn things...still smoke. How stupid and foolish they are.

My mother died from lung cancer, she smoked Kent cigs. back in the 60's. I later read that the filters in that brand contained asbestos. It was a horrible death for her. I had to endure my teenage years without her.

My mom and I smoked Kents in the early '80s. Although I thought the asbestos was gone by then, I heard that's not entirely the case (the factory in which the asbestos filters were used were never cleaned and purified. So the stuff lingered in the factory air for years and perhaps decades after they stopped using the asbestos filters.) And my mom started having breathing problems shortly before she died (of complications from diabetes.)

Yes..I smoked Kent in the 70's and 80's. The Micronite Filter was long gone with the asbestos added. But, I got chronic asthma,and My Aunt had breathing problems due to smoking Kent. She began to have all kinds of breathing issues,and ended up with COPD,and lung disease. Lorillard Tobacco changed the Pack,and "dropped" the Micronite Filter (it no longer has it on the Pack)..and it is a dead cigarette. It should have been banned years ago..these companies lied to all of us consumers. And the way the cigarettes were made was covered up.And to think how many people died because of this horrific, vile habit. They should raise the price to 20 Dollars a pack. But people would still pay it.

One thing that needs to be pointed out (and although I've switched to vaping and my non-smoker friends disagree with me), I don't think either raising the price of cigarettes or banning them altogether is a wise idea. People still have the right to do what they want with their own bodies in their own homes and the very LAST thing we need to be doing is creating ANOTHER black market that's out of reach of some level of regulatory control. There will be smoking casualties for decades to come unfortunately. But it would be an unmitigated DISASTER to make tobacco illegal altogether. And driving up the price could spawn black market dealers (who could adulterate their products in ways that could make Lorillard look ethical.)

Many cigarettes had coupons from time to time, but Raleigh was the king of coupons! They were the first major brand to use them and had them for many years. The old joke was: Use your Raleigh coupons to get your iron lung(if you don't know what an iron lung is, Google it!)

I started smoking at about age 15 but the last cigarette I enjoyed was the cigarette I had just before my dad said I could smoke at age 18....The element of a forbidden pleasure was gone! I quit cold turkey at the age of 26.& yes it took about 5 years for the urge to die out .I cannot stand the smell of cigarette smoke today at the age of 73 Down thru the years I watched friends& associates die from lung cancer ...all heavy smokers even my beloved mother who smoked 3 packs of camels per day. I thank my lucky stars & good fortune to have quit some 47 years ago & wish I had never started in the first place .but it was then the grown up thing to do. I cringe today when I see kids puffing away & wish there was some magical way to convince them to stop before it is too late

Call me crazy but I miss the days as a kid seeing cigarette ads in every magazine, even huge billboards in major league ballparks like the Marlboro one in Yankee stadium. I too remember making ashtrays in school. Camel was always my brand and I got a ton of stuff with camel cash. I believe it ended around 1997. And btw to the last writer, they are not only cause of lung cancer. I know that all too well.

Here in the uk many budget brands of my youth are now premium, no improvement in quality just an increase in price. Most though are gone. Also sadly coffin nail fags such as woodbine or senior service are almost obsolete.

Call it nostalgia if you like, but I miss the days of cigarette advertising. I'm not saying that smoking is/was a wise choice, but at least people had a choice to decide for themselves without being priced out of the game as they are today with cigarette taxes, and dictated to by big brother. If only they could make a safe tobacco product that's not as addictive as nicotine.

My Dad smoked Vantage when I was growing up. I hated that they would make him sick, so I would bend the whole soft pack in half and back again. When he took them out, he could only smoke a third of the length because they all broke off. He got really mad when he found out... but Thank God he quit later.

My grandparents smoked Raleighs and had shoeboxes full of the Raleigh coupons in their closet. I remember they were saving up for something from the catalog but never got it. My mom still smokes Benson & Hedges. I can remember being sent to the corner store with a couple dollars to buy her a pack when I was kindergarten-aged and people who knew the family would still sell you your parent's brand.

I didn't smoke until I was 21, then I was hooked. Smoked from 1961 until about 1995; loved every minute of it, but it became "unhealthy" and "costly" especially in Canada where I smoked Black Cat No. 7. My favourite US brand was Lark (see, someone did smoke them). Turkish latakia tobacco or Bulgartabac I got from Sophia were my real favourites though. Like so many other responders here, if it wasn't so bad for you, I'd still do it. Never got any satisfaction from 'weed', but tobacco hit the spot. Loved those days; nothing took the place of the smokes.

Same here, I loved the era of cigarette smoking. I can still remember walking in a convenience store and seeing huge selections of cigs, and it was fun trying different brands. No matter where I've traveled on the planet, no matter what I was there for, the best times I've had was when I was doing it with a cigarette. Enjoyed it for over 35 years and would start again if ever there's a safe way to do it.

Great times; nothing bothered you with a smoke in your hands. Wonder how many other smokers were like me: I couldn't smoke "on the john"; couldn't smoke just holding it in my mouth, had to have it in my hand; couldn't enjoy it in the dark much either...oh, and women still look 'sexy' with a smoke in their hand...lol

Always smoked Marlboro red box. Had to be the box, not the soft pack, because they tasted different. from 1981- 2000, then I switched to Parliament lights box, now called Parliament , I think they dropped the "lights". Now, I'm on the e cigs. About 3 years since I had a real tobacco cig, would never go back, these give same satisfaction, and I can do it anywhere, I do miss the smell of the real ones sometimes, especially, if I smell it on someone, who just had one..... I didn't care about the smell on my fingers, hair and clothes, NEVER bothered me. I used to get jealous, when I first switched to the e cigs, cause" How come he can have one, but I cant"? Thank God for these e cigs.

love the design on eve's package. a lady's cigarette (box,at least) should be pretty and fashionable. sobaranie and nat sherman make some very attractive looking ones. light smoking can be enjoyable if tobacco hasn't been tampered with, the the paper should be organic and tar/nicotine low. though...serious smokers consider ultra light/low tar cigs a waste! i smoke an average of 2.5 cigarettes a day!!! :-)

Eve's "look" got ruined with the removal of the flowers,and adding "Butterflies" (very non descript). And prior to the change..they were regular size, then 100s..then 120s..then back to 100s..and the Pack..(even with the Flowers) was changed so many times that how did Liggett..expect Braand Loyalty?? Those Butterfly Packs are crappy looking,and are horrible. When these were introduced in 1971..there was only 2 kinds...Full Flavor,and Full Flavor Menthol.Soft Pack. Plain and Simple..but a beautiful Pack. Today's EVE is completely changed. Funny thing is..I was in Germany last year,and they still have the "Flowered Packs" over there. Regular and Lights. Yes, here in the US..companies switch packaging,and confuse people even more. It's a shame.

Ah, the good old days when almost every television program featured smoking, when the Flintstones characters touted the virtues of Winstons, when Tom and Jerry and Sylvester had to have their smokes. Of course, I also grew up in the days when almost everyone's drinking glasses tended to be comprised of used snuff jars...

Extremely common in the Black community of smokers. I remember a band I was associated with; almost all the members smoked "Kool". Their method of being able to tell who's pack was who's was where the tear in the bottom was made. The tear was just large enough to be able to 'tap" one cigarette out at a time - with an untouched filter... Like that was going to make a difference with all the chemicals they were sucking into their lungs. :-)

I started smoking when I was 12 years old in September of 1976. I simply went out and bought a pack of Salem for $.65 at the corner candy store because I somehow knew I would enjoy the taste of menthol and I figured that since it was already my Dad's brand, why the hell not? No peer pressure or any literal or metaphorical gun was ever held to my head. All of the adults in my family smoked as well as all of my favorite people in rock and roll like Jerry Garcia, Pigpen, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick and all the rest and I always knew that one day I would probably trade in my chocolate cigarettes for tobacco ones, so there ya go. I was an intelligent and somewhat precocious kid and I was well aware of all of the possible health risks even then and I knew what I was doing. In fact, I was usually the only one among my circle of friends who always had a cigarette in my hand whenever we were hanging out together. After a brief flirtation with Marlboro reds (yawn) and Winston, which by the way would always remain as my once in a blue moon choice of non menthol cigarettes, I fell in love with Kool soft pack and remained faithful until 1982 when I graduated high school and switched to Kool Milds. About a year later, I think it was RJ Reynolds that came out with a new brand called BRIGHT which were cool and sweet tasting like peppermint candy and I really liked 'em. Then again, I've always had a sweet tooth which is probably why I still love my Southern Comfort, but that's whole 'nother trip, folks. Lol. Flooding the market with coupons for free packs and also a free carton occasionally was definitely an incentive as well as I recall. I continued smoking those until they stopped making them sometime later in the 80's and then I returned to Kool Milds which I would keep on smoking until I started experiencing shortness of breath in 2011 at age 47 and I decided that after a pleasurable 35 years and no intention of giving up my beloved marijuana, it was time to call it quits with the cigarettes in order to salvage my remaining lung capacity and keep right on breathing as we speak. I sincerely hope that no one will hate me for mentioning that there was never any physical or psychological withdrawal to speak of for whatever reason. Go figure. Anyway, 5 years later and there are still no discernible signs of cancer, heart disease or emphysema, so I am cool with that, but I am not, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be a pompous proselytizing hypocrite about it. I am an old-school free-thinking hippie with a baldy haircut and I firmly believe in free will and the right to personally choose and decide for one's own self whatever the fuck it is that anyone wants to do with or put into their own body and I will defend that right until I cease to draw breath on this planet and if anyone wants to smoke in my presence or my home they are more than welcome to do so to this very day and while we are at it, enough with all of this anonymity bullshit, my name is Angelo Dominic Castropignano from Elmhurst, Queens NYC and I really enjoyed and appreciated this particular blog, even if you forgot to mention TWIST, the lemon flavored cigarette that debuted in 1974, I believe, and then died almost immediately afterwards. Aw man, if only I had gotten a chance to taste them. LMFAO!!! ��

You really didn't miss much from not trying the lemon "Twist's" by American Tobacco. I tried them twice, and it was so so menthol. Spring (Lorillard) came out with a Lemony menthol too in the early 90's. I started smoking about 10 years before you, so I tried (or know of) just about any brand that was available in the U.S. Newport (with the hint of mint) was great too, but you missed those, as Lorillard changed the look (A really nice chic package) and the blend of those in 1969. They were a terrific smoke until the switch. I too, liked RJR's "Bright" Brand. They lasted a year. A great smoke!!

Angelo Dominic Castropignano, from Queens, NYC...I'm so glad that I read that you mentioned Bright cigarettes!! I was trying to find those and who made them on Google. I smoked many brands throughout my years, but I'd have to say that Brights were my favorite. Too bad they didn't last for long. I started statted smoking at 9 yrs old. Smoked for 20 years, then quit for 23 years. Started back up and been smoking for 3 years now. ...but I began transitioning to vaping about 6 months ago, and just gave the cigarettes up totally 4 weeks ago. Fortunately, I've had no complications from smoking yet, tho I realize I'm not out of the woods and probably never will be...and I also realize that we don't know all the implications of vaping yet, just like we didn't know the complications of smoking cigarettes back then. If it weren't for the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes, I'd still be smoking them. I enjoyed cigarettes, which makes it very difficult to quit them.